22 posts tagged “film”
Been playing catch up with my film-watching, having been away quite a bit, so last weekend I saw two very different films.
Through the historic tale is woven threads of the legend that surround this powerful historical figure which add just enough mythical sparkle without pushing it into the realms of pure fantasy.
And I can't comment on it without mentioning the actress who plays Ghengis's wife, Khulan Chuluun, who is just painfully beautiful and I couldn't take my eyes off her when she was on screen.
Second film and what was my actual Sunday cinema was Edge of Love with Sienna Miller, Keira Knightley, Cillian Murphy and Matthew Rhys.
Now I'm not a massive Knightley fan as I think she is overrated as an actress and as to Miller, she's always been just a pretty face but I was actually pleasantly surprised.
Set in London and South Wales during the second world war, Knightley and Miller play the former lover and wife respectively of poet Dylan Thomas. The film tells of the relationship between the three and then later four, when Vera (Knightley) marries. Thomas is played with craft by Rhys as a moody, self-centred, bon vivant and cad whose ability with words enraptures and ensnares the two women almost to the point of tragedy.
The rapport between the two female leads comes across with such warmth and naturalness it makes a very convincing and engaging friendship on screen. There is much to admire in the performances with both having a convincing stab at the welsh accent and Knightley singing remarkably well.
A refreshingly sophisticated and intelligent chick-flick is probably the best way to describe it.
I wanted a drink, that's my excuse. It's a Friday night, Mosh is out in the suburbs somewhere on a boozy night with the boys and I wanted a drink. What is a girl to do?
Sex and the City at the cinema.
Yes, yes I know, I'm surprised too, I wouldn't entertain the TV series in my front room. Even more so that I quite enjoyed it, despite an ending so predictable a five-year-old could have written it. Mind you the large glass of Sancerre probably helped.
(A rousing huzzah to the Clappy Piccie House for letting you take a proper drink in a proper glass into the screen)
Finally after what seems likes weeks of enjoying the popcorn more than the movies, I've seen something truly entertaining: In Bruges.
In it Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson play assassins Ray and Ken who've been told to lay low in Bruges after a hit by their boss Harry played by Ralph Fiennes.
Ray and Ken are obviously cut from different cloth which makes for an interesting journey as the real reason for the Bruges trip unfolds.
To say more about the story line would spoil it but it is funny, sad and violent all melded into one. It is nice to see Farrell working with his native Irish accent for once and he is a natural at this type of character. Gleeson is just one of those actors who consistently puts in a good turn although this is the first thing I've seen him in since Harry Potter's IV and V and I can't quite get Mad-Eye Mooney out of my head when I see him on screen, which has nothing to do with his performance.
Fiennes is fabulous as a foul-mouthed, London criminal head-case. He does suprisingly well with a broad Laahnden accent but having seen him as Voldemort in HP, playing evil again was no great test of his acting ability.
In fact the film turned out to be a bit of Harry Potter reunion with Clemence Poesy who was Fleur Delacour in IV taking the Hogwarts total up to three. Poesy plays Farrell's love interest and a character that is a departure from the children's film. It shouldn't surprise me as she's done a lot of film work in France.
Anyway I digress, it is a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours and having been sorely disappointed with Oxford Murders, Leatherheads and Shine A Light recently it was refreshing to leave the cinema with a smile on my face rather than just bits of popcorn.
Actor Heath Ledger was found dead at the age of 28 on Tuesday. Which celebrity death in your lifetime has affected you the most?
Affected is probably too strong a word but I was moved by the tragic circumstances of River Phoenix's death. I'd been a fan of his since watching Stand By Me.
I saw the film This Boy's Life recently with Robert De Niro and a young Leonardo diCaprio who reminded me a lot of Phoenix. The film came out the same year Phoenix died and diCaprio was four years younger. I wonder who of the two would have had the bigger career had he not died when he did? And would his brother Joaquin Phoenix have risen to such stardom?
Two films I've seen in recent weeks I feel are worth a mention are The Golden Compass and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
The former is based on the first book in Philip Pullman's Dark Material's Trilogy, the Northern Lights, which I read at a friends suggestion as the antidote male hero Harry Potter.
Now I really enjoyed the books and was lucky enough to see the stage version at the National Theatre which could have been a disaster but was actually superbly done.
So I was looking forward to the film, if with a little trepidation at what Hollywood might do with it. I'd read all the stories of directors dropping out and the decision to down play the religious theme but was encouraged by the casting.
And I wasn't disappointed. I can't imagine how it is to follow if you haven't read the books and I won't attempt to explain here but the job of imagining Pullman's fantasy world and ideas on film is skillfully done.
The lead characters live up to expectation with the exception of Iorek Byrnison, the polar bear which is voiced by Ian McKellan (more of him, quite literally in another post).
The CGI bear is as good as anything else I've seen on film recently but McKellan's voice just doesn't fit. It's like Gandalf has become a bear. Perhaps his voice is just a bit too old for the character.
My only other criticism is the decision to erase the religious element, a decision I'm sure is born out of having US financing rather than British or European.
In the books I always felt that the role of religion within society was fairly central but it begs a question that should the remaining two films go ahead, how on earth are they going to explain Lyra, the heroine's, significance without any religious reference?
If you've read the books you will no doubt know exactly what I mean but I won't explain as it will spoil it for those who haven't.
A complete cinematic contrast, The Assassination of Jesse James, is a detailed character piece bereft of any silver screen whistles and bells that had me completely gripped. If you are expecting an action movie of Western persuasion you'll be sorely disappointed.
Framed by a relatively short period of history it is a character piece about the build up to, murder and its consequences of the infamous Jesse James, played by Brad Pitt.
It is a long film and the first half an hour seems a little slow but the pace picks up as the tension between the two central characters builds - Ford the murderer is played by Casey Affleck.
It is refreshing to watch a film which places the actors firmly in the spotlight to tell the story. For all the gossip and glamour that surrounds Pitt, he is at the core a skilled actor and together with Affleck what the two of them manage to pull off is breathtaking. Quite simply they say more without words than most actors could pull off with heavy dose of verbal diarrhea.
If Affleck doesn't have an illustrious career after this then there is no justice.
Warner Brothers has missed a trick. OK so it's not like profit margins are slim with the whole Harry Potter franchise
Peter Jackson has spoilt us with the zillions of hours of extra's and extended versions that are part and parcel of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and should not be the yard-stick by which all DVD's are judged. Nonetheless, I like my extra's: the behind-the-scenes footage, cast and crew interviews, making of's, deleted scenes, out-takes (love out-takes) and generally the thought process behind the whole thing.
It is a big deciding factor behind buying a DVD rather than just waiting for the film to show on Sky.
And what do you get with OOTP? Some rather lame deleted scenes that a GCSE editing student would easily have chopped, the actress who plays Tonks being all zany behind the scenes but not really showing you much at all, a Harry Potter back story film in which any intrigue is completely lost if you've read the last book, and I'm sure most people have, and a brief teaser about editing which ends with a 'have a go at editing your own scene' interactive exercise at the end.
The Goblet of Fire DVD had restored a little faith with its behind the scene's making of films for each of the Tri-wizard tournament tasks after the disasterous Johnny Vaughan interviews with the cast on the Prisoner of Azkaban DVD.
The latest two films are crying out for extended versions, after all they condensed the books so much and there always seems to be plenty that ends up on the cutting room floor or may be no if the deleted scenes on OOTP are anything to go by. And some sort of commentary would be fabulous. (Yes I have watched all three extended LOTR DVD's with the various commentaries on).
What will inevitably happen now is that Warner will release a box-set of all seven films when they are finished with loads of juicy stuff so (sad) fans like myself have to buy them all again.
Got tickets to a preview screening of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
I'd really enjoyed the first film and having seen clips of this one, which includes the very handsome Clive Owen, I was quite looking forward to it.
The cinematography is imaginative and beautiful, with some scenes like carefully posed photographs. The costumes, especially Elizabeth's - played by Cate blanchett - are stunningly decadent and vibrant. How it must have felt to wear them?
In the first third of the film, the relationship between the Queen and Sir Walter Raleigh, played by Owen, dominates. His forwardness proves refreshing for the Queen and results in some amusing repartee but then the film lags as their relationship develops and the inevitable war with Spain draws closer. Raleigh, while central to the main thread of the story, seems to fall into the background. Elizabeth's internal struggles fail to engage and there are numerous sub plots detailing conspiracies to kill the queen which are underplayed
Although the director readily admits to playing loosely with historical facts the plot verges on the indulgent and contrived at times. The result is that the lead up to the final battle with the Spanish Armada has little drama and Raleigh's heroics seem to be an overblown Hollywood add-on.
Only an appearance by Clive Owen or Cate Blanchett would have made me stay for the Q&A - Geoffrey Rush's character Walsingham just seems very peripheral. Apparently Khapur spoke at length about religious imagery and the royalties belief of divine right. It goes some way to explaining some of the camera angles and direction but does little to change my overall opinion.
After a long day pounding the computer keyboard alone at home, a film like Control was just what I needed to take me out of myself. And now I can't get Love Will Tear Us Apart out of my head.
The attraction was more the reviews and Samantha Morton than the story of Ian Curtis and Joy Division although I do know a handful of their songs.
Morton, who I've always thought to be one of the best actresses of her generation, storms it as the hard done by girlfriend and then wife of the tortured soul that was Ian Curtis. And what a tortured soul he was, played superbly by Sam Riley.
There are some real laugh out loud moments from some of the larger than life characters that surrounded the band, and some of the other band members themselves but it is the gentle and ultimately tragic character of Curtis that enthrals.
I'm off to listen to Joy Division...
There has been a really good run of European films in the last year or two and yesterday I went to see another one: The Counterfeiters.
Set in a German concentration camp during the second world war it tells the story of a group of Jewish prisoners who, because of certain skills and talents, are made to work on producing counterfeit money and documents for the Nazis.
They are kept separate and almost in secret from the rest of the camp.
But while they are treated relatively well with comfortable beds and clothing, given enough to eat and music to listen to while they work, the horror experienced by the unseen inmates on the other side of the wooden fence is never far away. And the precarious nature of their essentially privileged position is a presence that can't be taken for granted.
The central theme is survival and how they reconcile their own treatment with what is happening beyond the fence. Should survival be at any cost?
There are some wonderful moments and, naturally, some harrowing ones. It was both an interesting and thought provoking film.
Eagerly awaited by one reader (thanks Jane!) here are my humble views of this weekend's stage and screen entertainment.
First Elling.
Based on a Norwegian novel the play revolves around two psychiatric inmates (Elling and Kjell Bjarne) who are released into the community. Put into a flat and assigned a social worker they have to prove they can live in the real world or face returning to the institution for the rest of their lives.
Elling is the fastidious, agoraphobic mummy's boy and Kjell has never lost his pubescent girl-obsession and doesn't like wearing clothes.
It is witty, amusing and down right laugh out loud funny. The clever script ably-assisted by the acting talents of the John Simm (Elling) and Adrian Bower (Kjell).
The former was a revelation proving he has the credentials to be a comic as well as a straight actor. His timing was impeccable and his ability to create humour from a mere look or tilt of the head reminded me of the likes of Eric Morecombe.
It's only on for another week but if you are in London and can get a ticket, I'd highly recommend it.
Michael Clayton
It is the story of a top lawyer (Tom Wilkinson) who goes spectacularly off the rails in the middle of a long litigation case against a huge chemical company. Clayton, played by Clooney, is the law firms janitor, the guy who fixes difficult and tricky situations and he's sent in to sort the mess out before the whole case collapses uncovering all sorts of skulduggery along the way and putting his life at risk.
What is there to say? An excellent cast, brilliantly acted, nicely shot. Mildly intriguing plot, few twists and turns along the way. Felt a little too long. George Clooney was gorgeous.
